Hunted_The Guardians' League Book One

by Amelia Elias

  A warm hand suddenly slid down her back, jolting her from her thoughts, and Sian spun around with a gasp.

  Diego caught her around the waist when she slipped on the wet tiles and pulled her against his bare body. “Scare you?” he asked, grinning.

  She punched his shoulder. “You know you did, and I think you did it on purpose,” she accused, but from the twinkle in his eyes she knew he heard the laughter in her voice despite her efforts to repress it. “Five minutes ago, you were sleeping like the dead!”

  He bent and nuzzled her ear before pressing a hot, open-mouthed kiss to the bite-mark on her throat. “I woke up the instant you left the bed, querida,” he murmured against her skin.

  Sian laughed despite the shivers his mouth sent down her spine. “You looked pretty dead to the world to me.”

  “Well, the sun set, too,” he admitted, pulling back. His eyes grew serious and his smile faded. “Are you regretting it yet, Sian?”

  Sian bit her lip at the concern in his eyes and reached up to touch his face. “No,” she said, almost surprised to find out it was the truth. “I don’t regret last night, Diego. It wasn’t only the wine. I wanted what happened.”

  “Thank God for that,” he murmured fervently before claiming her lips in a searing kiss.

  Sian laughed into his mouth and he tightened his arms around her, bringing her body fully against his. Her laugh turned into a moan and Sian wrapped her arms around his neck. His taste was more intoxicating than last night’s wine. She ran her fingers through his hair and explored his mouth just as avidly as he did hers, their tongues dancing and caressing as the warm water trickled over them. Sian slid her leg around his and ran the tip of her tongue over his teeth.

  His fangs sharpened under her tongue.

  Sian pulled back with a gasp and Diego froze, his hands pausing in their exploration of her back. “Don’t be afraid of me,” he whispered, looking at her with those cat-like eyes. “I would rather die than hurt you.”

  His words sent a shiver down her spine. Those odd instincts she couldn’t help relying on told her he didn’t lie. “It surprised me, that’s all. I’m not afraid,” Sian replied, and that was the truth too. She looked at him as the steam from the shower surrounded them, her gaze caressing his sharpened features, those incredible eyes and the slightest hint of a fang pressing against his lower lip. The impression of the wolf had never been stronger. She drew in a shaky breath and traced the edge of his goatee with a fingertip. “You know, Diego, you are one seriously sexy vampire.”

  The tension left his eyes as a slow and unbelievably sexy grin spread over his face. “You’re pretty damn hot yourself, querida,” he murmured in a tone that sent shivers down her spine.

  Sian couldn’t tear her eyes away from the fangs his smile revealed. Who would have thought fangs could look so sexy on a man? “Are you going to bite me again?” The question was out before she could censor it.

  He touched the mark on her neck softly before running his finger down to trace the one on the swell of her breast. “Do you want me to?”

  Sian felt her cheeks heat. Both bites tingled at his touch, the memory of the pleasure of his bite washing over her. She did want it but it felt almost shameful to admit it. “Actually, I think I do,” she whispered.

  His eyes flared with desire as he traced the mark on her breast again. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that,” he said softly. “If you’d said no I would have respected that, but I think it would’ve killed me to never taste you again.”

  She thought back to the shattering pleasure that had flooded her both times he’d bitten her last night and suddenly realized a vampire would have to eat regularly just like anyone else. The thought of him holding another woman close, drinking from her throat as she shuddered with ecstasy in his arms, bothered her more than she wanted to admit even to herself. “Do you do that to everyone you bite?”

  Diego shook his head at once. “Not even a little,” he assured her, stroking her hair as if he heard her unspoken jealousy. “I merely keep them calm and unknowing.” He bent and nuzzled her throat again. “The pleasure I save for you, querida.”

  A wave of heat and pure feminine possessiveness washed over her at those words. She didn’t dare look at that possessiveness too closely. He wasn’t hers. She needed to remember that. Sian closed her eyes, wanting to lose herself in the sensations Diego was evoking at her neck and forget about what she would soon have to do, but now that her curiosity was aroused she found she couldn’t stop the questions. “What do I taste like?”

  He chuckled low against her skin. “You taste incredible,” he said, his low voice rumbling along her nerve endings. “You taste like the heat of summer and endless steamy nights spiced with ecstasy. You taste like you’re mine to pleasure until the end of time, and when I look at you, I can’t wait to get started.”

  She shivered again. Who would’ve guessed her forbidding vampire had the soul of a poet? Then she frowned as another thought struck her. “Do you have a soul?” she asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer.

  * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  This time Diego’s laugh was surprised. “Of course I have a soul, my curious little cat. I was born a vampire, Sian. We aren’t evil, just different.”

  Sian drew in a breath to ask another question but Diego stopped her mouth with a kiss that wiped every thought from her mind. Sweet heaven, his kiss was a lethal weapon!

  “Can’t your questions wait a bit?” he murmured against her lips several long, hot minutes later. “I will tell you anything you want to know, but it’s very hard for me to concentrate on playing twenty-questions while you’re naked in my arms.”

  Sian abruptly remembered his passion last night and leaned fully against him, wanting to feel it one more time before she left. “Persuade me to wait,” she whispered. Diego closed his eyes and drew in a shaking breath before claiming her lips again. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was searing, devastating. It was a brand marking her as his.

  And she reveled in it.

  Sian moaned in protest when he pulled away, but he refused to allow her to pull his mouth back to hers. He reached behind her and picked up the shampoo. “Let me wash you,” he murmured.

  His voice was a temptation she didn’t even try to resist. Diego worked the shampoo through her hair, his strong fingers massaging her scalp in rhythmic strokes. She leaned her head back into the spray at his urging and gasped when his mouth slid down her arching throat. She made a little sound of protest when he pulled away all too soon. “Diego,” she whispered, aching for him.

  “Patience,” he murmured. He ran his hands through her hair, rinsing it until the water ran clear, before doing the same thing with the conditioner. She’d never imagined a man’s hands in her hair could be this sensual.

  Sian stopped him before he reached for the shower gel and took the washcloth from his hand. She couldn’t bear to stand here looking at that gorgeous body for one more second without touching him. She squeezed a little of the sandalwood soap onto the cloth and worked it into a lather before reaching out and sliding it up his ribs.

  Diego braced his hands on the wall behind her as she bit her lip and smoothed suds over his chest. “I thought I was washing you,” he teased as his breath quickened.

  Sian gave him a sultry look from beneath her lashes. “I’m not letting you have all the fun.” She stroked the cloth around his nipples, watching them harden at the caress, before turning her attention to his broad shoulders. It was intoxicating to touch him this way. “You know, you have a gorgeous chest,” she murmured as she smoothed soap over his muscles.

  She gasped when his slick palms slid around her and found her breasts. “I was just thinking the very same thing about you,” he said, rubbing the jasmine scented soap over her. He must have squeezed some into his hands when he’d reached behind her, Sian thought, but his thumbs brushed her nipples and she stopped thinking altogether.

  He bent and kissed her as their sl
ick hands caressed and explored. She dropped the washcloth and ran her hands down his arms, delighting in the way his biceps jumped at her touch, before sliding them to his back and down his spine. She reveled in the sheer size of him, the breadth of his shoulders and the ridged muscles of his back. She felt fragile in his arms, a rare thing for a woman of five foot ten. Even more strangely, she felt safe for the first time in three years when he held her. He kissed her again, slowly and tenderly as though her taste was something he treasured, and she lost herself in the pleasure of exploring this gorgeous man.

  He let out a shuddering breath against her mouth. “I love the way your hands feel on me,” he breathed as his own hands slid down her stomach. His strange eyes brightened with humor as he pulled back to look down at her. “It’s even better when I’m awake.”

  Sian laughed and reached down to stroke a slow caress over his firm backside. “I’d have to agree with you there,” she said. “There are parts of you I couldn’t reach while you were sleeping on your back.”

  He chuckled and bent to nibble at her ear. “All you have to do is ask me to roll over, querida,” he whispered. “I promise, I’m never sleeping too deeply to obey.”

  Sian let her head drop back, a thrill going through her at exposing her throat to his fangs. She’d never imagined such a thought would arouse her like this. Diego gave a low growl and nipped the side of her neck, and her breath hissed out in anticipation.

  “Are you going to bite me now?” she whispered, wrapping a leg around his and feeling like she would burst into flames if she didn’t have him inside her soon.

  He groaned and kissed her vulnerable throat again. “You truly want me to?”

  Sian slid her hands up his back and leaned forward to give a nip of her own to his shoulder, surprised at her own boldness. He sucked in a sharp breath as she swirled her tongue over the spot. “Do you like it when I do it to you?” she whispered, running her teeth gently over his skin.

  He pulled her hips firmly against his and let her feel the answer for herself. “Like is far too mild a word,” he growled in her ear. “It makes me so hot I can hardly stand it. You could say I definitely have a biting fetish.”

  She laughed, a sultry sound she hadn’t even known she was capable of making. “And don’t forget your foot fetish.”

  His passionate gaze took her breath away. “I have a you fetish, querida,” he said, and she knew the feeling. She was beginning to think she had a fetish for him right back. She even liked his nicknames for her. She held him tight as he kissed her again, but he pulled away all too soon. He suddenly reached up and pulled down the hand-held showerhead before giving her a wicked grin. “Lie down,” he said, his deep voice making it sound like the most carnal of propositions.

  She hesitated only a moment before obeying and lying down with her shoulders propped against the edge of the oversized tub. Diego knelt at her feet and aimed the spray at her legs, rinsing the suds from her skin.

  “Diego, what are you doing?” she asked, mesmerized at the sight of him in such an intimate position.

  He put the showerhead aside and lifted her ankle to his lips. “Something I promise you’ll like,” he murmured. “Close your eyes, wildcat.”

  Her eyes were already closing with pleasure at what his mouth was doing to her ankle. She’d never thought of it as a particularly erogenous zone before but when Diego touched her, her entire body seemed to be an erogenous zone. She moaned as he licked his way up the back of her calf.

  Keeping her eyes closed heightened all her other senses. The scent of jasmine and sandalwood permeated every breath she took, reminding her of the hot summer nights he’d spoken of, and the clean flavor of the steam surrounding them teased her tongue as her lips parted with pleasure. The hiss of the running water didn’t quite cover her soft gasps as his mouth moved over her. His goatee scraped gently over her skin, its roughness a delicious contrast to the softness of his tongue and his smooth teeth when he nipped her again. She was drowning in erotic sensation. Heat stabbed her to the core.

  “Diego, I need you,” she moaned as his mouth moved up her inner thigh.

  “And you’ll have me.” The hot spray of the shower suddenly bathed her calf, following the path his mouth had taken up her leg. “I promise you that.”

  Her entire body tightened as the massaging spray moved higher. She thought she would die with the anticipation of feeling it bathe her where she ached most, but the spray jumped from her thighs to her belly. “Diego!”

  He laughed. “Is there a problem?” he asked in an innocent tone completely at odds to his wicked laugh. She couldn’t speak. His free hand smoothed over her skin as he rinsed the soap from her abdomen and ribs. She moaned out loud when he aimed the spray at her breasts. Her hands found him and she threaded her fingers through his hair, trying to urge him to kiss her.

  He laughed again and bent to her breasts instead. Sian arched and cried out as his tongue swirled over her. She felt the sharp points of his fangs against her tender flesh and tightened her fingers in his hair, hoping he was going to bite her at last. She was starting to wonder if vampire bites were addictive, she craved it so badly.

  He didn’t. The spray traveled down her body and this time he didn’t tease her. When he came to the juncture of her thighs he aimed the spray low, making slow circles that aroused her to the point of madness as he slid a finger inside her. It was more than she could take and she cried out his name as she climaxed.

  The spray disappeared at once but before she could protest its loss, his mouth replaced it. The sudden change in sensation was enough to send her over the edge for the second time. He groaned and slid another finger inside. She writhed, wanting more, when he suddenly turned his head and sank his fangs deep very high on her inner thigh.

  The brief pain was forgotten in an instant as a tidal wave of pleasure crashed over her. The spray returned, dancing over her flesh, his fingers sliding in and out as his mouth sucked strongly at her thigh. She held on for dear life as wave after wave of ecstasy swamped her, erasing everything but Diego and the unbelievable pleasure he gave her.

  She had no idea how much time passed before she heard the showerhead hit the tub as Diego threw it aside. She barely had time to protest its loss before his mouth was on hers. The salty, coppery taste of his lips only aroused her more. She wrapped her legs around him and welcomed him as he thrust deep inside her.

  She moaned into his mouth and he growled in return, taking her with deep, fast strokes she felt all the way to her soul. He pulled away from their fevered kiss and pressed his lips to her neck as Sian’s fingernails dug deep into his shoulder. He felt incredible inside her, so very right, and before she knew she intended to speak she heard herself whisper, “I wish you could feel this like I do.”

  “I can, now that you’ve invited me,” he murmured against her skin. Almost at once she felt the strange invading presence in her mind, the same sensation she’d had in the alley when he’d read what the clerk had done, but this time the intimacy was glorious instead of disconcerting. She felt the bite of her nails in his shoulder and gasped, running her fingers over his muscles to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

  She felt the same caress feather over her own shoulders.

  She didn’t know how he’d done it but somehow she felt everything he felt, both his rigid heat deep inside her and her velvet tightness around him. Diego thrust deep and she arched her back, the combined feeling of intimate friction beyond her wildest dreams. She wished he would bite her again and before she could even take a breath to request it, his fangs found her throat and sank deep.

  The sudden intoxicating rapture overwhelmed her, and it was a moment before she felt the sharp pain on her shoulder. She ignored it, tightening her hands on his shoulders, but it only made the sting worse. It took her a moment to figure out her nails had pierced his skin.

  Need rose up in her and she forced her eyes open to see a ruby droplet of his blood clinging to his skin. Obeying an instinct she did
n’t even know she had, she leaned up and caught it on her tongue.

  A lightning shock of ecstasy burst through her and she felt it take Diego as well through the mental connection he still held. She bit his shoulder around the little scratch and laved it with her tongue, needing to prolong the extraordinary sensation as long as possible, but the wild passion overwhelmed her. They reached the peak together and the shared climax was the most incredible thing she’d ever felt in her life.

  She felt Diego pull away from her throat and licked the cut on his shoulder again, wanting one last taste of him. Never would she have believed something as simple as a few drops of blood could create such glorious bliss.

  Diego heard the thought in her mind and tore himself from her embrace, his hand flying to the cut on his shoulder. Sian smiled up at him, the faintest trace of red on her lower lip, and ice shot down his spine when he saw a matching smear on his palm.

  “No, don’t!” he cried as the tip of her tongue flicked out to catch the trace of his blood. His hand darted out and wiped it away before she could lick her lip clean. Dread filled his heart. “You didn’t drink my blood, Sian,” he whispered urgently, praying it was true. “Tell me you didn’t.” He gathered her close and held her tight.

  She snuggled against him, completely unaware of his distress. “Just a taste,” she murmured.

  He swore softly in Spanish, squeezing his eyes shut as the warm afterglow of their lovemaking was extinguished by fear. This was a nightmare. He hadn’t even thought to warn her about taking his blood. Why would he? He hadn’t thought she would ever have the opportunity. He sent his powers searching through her, questing for any evidence of the Change starting in her body and cursing himself for not realizing what she’d done until it was too late.

  He should’ve known the instant her mouth had touched his skin and that unimaginable ecstasy had taken him. The melding of body and mind and the exchange of blood between bondmates was rumored to be the most erotic thing a vampire could hope to experience, and what he’d just shared with Sian had certainly been that. Even now, despite his fear, his body still tingled with the power of it.